DIG_POD

Since the planet is called Wasabi, I immediately pictured the pilot looking like Jean Reno.

From the art and previews (I’ve actually been following your game since the very first post), it reminded me of Noita and Barotrauma (my misconception about the sonar, which I mention below), and I was curious to see how much you’d end up implementing.

I was surprised that the arc shown in the screenshots turned out to be a suction tool—I thought it was sonar, which would’ve fit perfectly with the signal theme. Like, you scan, explore, search for something in the soil, and fend off enemies.

I didn’t like that any hit, even a minor one, takes away health. On the other hand, crashing into a wall at high speed results in the same punishment… I guess that can be attributed to the short development time.

I only really understood the game on my second attempt. It’s not obvious at all that the monsters’ blood, which gets turned into gold by that thermo-gun, can then be collected by shooting the gold (really not intuitive). It’s also unclear why you even need to collect gold—what’s the point of the total cargo mass increasing (and why is it shown in blue, like it’s water)? I also lacked an immediate understanding of whether I could upgrade my digging arc. As soon as you reach stone (which happens almost right away), the digging speed drops, and you instantly want to improve it. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem possible.

= = = = = But my complaints about the inconveniences became irrelevant once I progressed further and finally looked at the screen properly, noticing the key for upgrade configuration 😅 Same with collecting gold using the gun (still, it probably would’ve been better to have auto-pickup for it, or at least allow easy collection even with a weak tool).

= = = = = The game is great. So far, it’s the best thing I’ve played from Ludum. Atmospheric, sounds great, and feels good to play. The map generation really encourages you to replay and start over again and again. It’s very cool that there are new systems you encounter during the run. At the same time, it’s a bit disappointing that armor upgrades are only visible in the menu, not during gameplay.

About the sudden explosion and the need to run… that was a nasty trick. I had to replay just to see the ending… but didn’t manage it. After collecting 600 gold on the level, I tried to grab all four golden bubbles from the boss, and the explosion caught me off guard again. It really needs some kind of visual and audio indicator to show how much time is left, so you can properly assess the risk… I didn’t go for a third attempt.

It’s a bit disappointing that the jam theme is only implemented as intermediate goals (I just can’t consider a distance-to-finish bar a gameplay mechanic—it’s just an indicator). If there had been sonar like I originally imagined… but that’s not really important—the game is great, and the work is excellent. Thanks for the experience.

During gameplay, I also ran into a situation—I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a feature—where I went back to collect previously left golden blood, and suddenly a pack of four-headed monsters dropped down on me from above. That turned into quite an unexpected challenge.